Now that we have left our weekly mansion, we realize that in fact we were living in the red-light district of Nagoya. Subtle as it was to a foreigner with no hiragana or kanji skills, a picture tells a thousand words. Our eyes were only for sakura and sushi in those first few days, delaying our realization of place for sometime longer. Should I post a photo to prove it? Argh. no.. I don't think I will. The yen started to drop when we realized that the surrounding hotels were charging for a room by the hour or extra for an overnight stay, then the routine of men, regular cars and regular days became apparrent. Should I send Mark down for a closer look? The district was hardly seedy, as if this was an accepted pastime and so as we have since learned, most Japanese would not even blink or think it strange that a family of four with a 12 year old boy and 10 year old girl should be accomodated in this part of town. The major give away and concern for our children were the explicit photos posted behind our apartment block. "Let's walk the other way today".
As much as we savoured the experience of weekly mansion living in the red light district of Nagoya, we were overjoyed to move on to our more permanent mansion at Higashiyama Koen. By contrast we are now dodging BMWs, Black Mercedes and Bentleys. Are we still in Japan?
Our home is just up the hill from the train station, a four minute walk. It is very convenient, only a 17 minute subway trip to the centre of town, trains come every 3 minutes. Are we being spoilt? Yes we are! There is truly something to be said for this life-style. Walking everywhere, a quick drop into the supermarket to buy some fish for dinner, it is convenient and safe enough for the children to get themselves home from school. We also see children as young as 5 years old travelling on the train by themselves. People live so close together, so a friendly social network is formed, it would be hard to be alone here or even lonely. People are considerate of others and are quiet in their flats, hence no singing practise yet! For a visitor this seems like a near-perfect lifestyle. Are we experiencing life through rose-colored glasses? By all accounts working life in Japan is extremely challenging. We are meeting Japanese employees who work for 12 hours every weekday and then again for some period of time on the weekend. They have few annual leave days, it seems that they "live to work" and vice versa, "work to live". No wonder the Japanese are masters at sleeping on the train.
Our apartment in this affluent area, though small by Australian standards is large by Japanese standards. We have 2.5 verandahs, 3 bedrooms and an open tatami room. We have a brand new renovated kitchen and the highlight of modern Japanese living; a self-heating, auto-filling bath, a tub that continues to keep the water warm, complete with call button when in need of a soda (oops hanging around Japanese/Americans is wearing off on me)
We feel very fortunate for our year in Japan. Arigato Gozaimus!
